Without first-party data, it’s not retail media

Over 4,500 people gathered in Gothenburg when the D-Congress event once again became the meeting place for the entire retail ecosystem. Payment solutions, logistics players and e-commerce platforms filled the exhibition halls. The perspective of retail as a growing media business was, however, significantly less visible.

Globally, retail media is growing rapidly. In the US, players such as Amazon and Walmart have already built large advertising businesses around their retail platforms. In the Nordics, development is still at an early stage.

Retail media expert Colin Lewis put his finger on a central challenge:

“If you don’t have first-party data, it’s not retail media. It’s just shopper marketing.”

The point is as simple as it is inconvenient. Retail media is based on retailers using their customer data to create stronger target groups, measure real impact and optimize investments. Without first-party data, it’s practically traditional shopper marketing in a new packaging.

In the Swedish market, there is still a tendency to see retail media as another advertising package rather than a data-driven media business. The real potential only arises when retailers start working with their customer data as a strategic asset, not just as a support for campaigns.

At the same time, another theme was impossible to miss during D-Congress – AI.

Several speakers described how artificial intelligence is changing the way consumers discover products. When AI becomes the interface between customer and product, the rules of the game for marketing also change. It is no longer just about being visible in a feed or winning a keyword auction, but about being chosen by systems that are largely driven by data.

As product discovery is increasingly driven by data and algorithms, retailers also have a new role in the ecosystem. They own valuable first-party data about consumer behavior and purchasing decisions, making their platforms increasingly attractive as media channels.

In this context, retail media recurred in several of the discussions during the congress. This signifies that the market is now moving from hype to a more operational phase where retailers increasingly see their own channels and customer data as a media business.

At the same time, the development requires new organizations and working methods. Retail is gradually evolving into a media business, which necessitates a more transparent view of how advertising, data and sales are connected.

When L’Oréal’s Nordic CMO Nataliya Chichkova summed up what it takes to succeed, the message was clear. Success is not about building your own isolated solutions but about using established and scalable technology platforms that make it possible to move quickly.

“It’s a mindset shift. Build for superiority. Time is of the essence.”

At the same time, it is not enough to just talk about first-party data. Retail media without 1PD risks being reduced to traditional shopper marketing. But a model that is based solely on retailers’ own data risks becoming a limited offsite solution instead.

The future of retail media in the Nordics will therefore likely require something more: deeper collaborations between retailers, advertisers and media players where data, technology and distribution are connected. Only then can retail media become an integrated part of the entire marketing budget and cover the entire customer journey.

The question going forward is therefore not just how much AI is implemented or how many retail media networks are launched.

The real question is which actors succeed in building collaborations where trade, data and media function as a coherent ecosystem.

Those who succeed will gain momentum that will be difficult to catch up with.

Henric Ståhl
Senior Director Data & Tech, WPP Media Sweden